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Japan’s Security Evolution, Not Revolution

Tokyo never actually pursued pacifism. Its postwar strategy was always to rely first on the U.S. for defense, doing less when it can but more when it must.

By

Jennifer Lind

July 20, 2015 12:41 p.m. ET

Last Wednesday, Japan’s Lower House of Parliament passed two bills that would permit historic changes in the country’s national security policy. This has prompted pronouncements that Japan is stepping away from its decades-long policy of pacifism. But such criticism exaggerates both Japan’s pacifist past and the apparent aggression of its latest move.

The two bills would create a legal basis for multinational security cooperation. While “collective security” was previously deemed unconstitutional, this legislation, if...